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Howell blog: My AP Top 25 men's hoops ballot

By Brian Howell, BuffZone.com

Posted:
01/13/2014 09:00:00 AM MST

Wow, what a week in college basketball! I turned my Top 25 ballot into the Associated Press late on Sunday night, but not until after a lot of work. This may have been the hardest week I've had in coming up with a 25. Ten of the teams in my Top 25 from last week lost, a few of them lost twice. So, my ballot this week looks a whole lot different than it did a week ago - as I'm sure many ballots around the country look different.

The top stayed the same, with Arizona and Syracuse maintaining their perfect records and top-2 spots. But, Ohio State, Louisville and Duke all fell hard this week. And, I dropped four teams completely out: Oregon, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina.

Speaking of Oregon, what in the heck has happened to the Ducks?! They've lost three in a row, including at Colorado and twice at home this week, to solid but not great teams in Cal and Stanford. The Ducks are actually lucky to have the one Pac-12 win they do have. They needed OT to get past Utah in the conference opener. I was never big on the Ducks' bandwagon (still can't find a great win on their schedule), but I didn't expect this type of tumble.

As for the Colorado Buffaloes, I dropped them from No. 15 to No. 21 after a very disappointing week, barely beating Washington State and then getting thumped at Washington on a day when star guard Spencer Dinwiddie got hurt. I'm not sure the Buffs are top-25 material without Dinwiddie, but I kept them in for two reasons: 1.

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So many teams below them lost, so it was tough to drop them all the way out; and 2. I'd like to see the Buffs prove on the court that they're worthy - or not worthy - of a top-25 spot before assuming they aren't. They didn't look good after Dinwiddie's injury, but it could be a different story after adjusting to his absence in practice.

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